Interactive lounge : an interdisciplinary approach to the design of a gestural interaction device

Among the many new opportunities that digital technologies are enabling are an increased capacity for viewers to interact not only with the program content, but with an increasingly wide array of other digital applications. Within this context this project has developed a new interaction device (incorporating gestural platform technology) and user interfaces to facilitate interactive access to digital media in a lounge room setting. This paper provides an overview of an interdisciplinary design process applied by Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (ACID) researchers—in order to develop the device and present in detail its unique features.

Research Monograph: Building Online Participatory Systems: Towards the Community Based Interactive Environmental Decision Support Systems

The importance of broadening community participation in environmental decision-making is widely recognized and lack of participation in this process appears to be a perennial problem. In this context, there have been calls from some academics for the more extensive use of geographic information systems (GIS) and distance learning technologies, accessible via the Internet, as a possible means to inform and empower communities. However, a number of problems exist. For instance, at present the scope for online interaction between policy-makers and citizens is currently limited. Contemporary web-based environmental information systems suffer from this lack of interactivity on the one hand and on the other hand from the apparent complexity for the lay user. This paper explores the issue of online community participation at the local level and attempts to construct a framework for a new (and potentially more effective) model of online participatory decision-making. The key components, system architecture and stages of such a model are introduced. This model, referred to as a ‘Community Based Interactive Environmental Decision Support System’, incorporates advanced information technologies, distance learning and community involvement tools which will be applied and evaluated in the field through a pilot project in Tokyo in the summer of 2002.

Completing the jigsaw : ESL and EFL undergraduate views on interactive peer-based learning

English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students often face incongruence with Western teaching methods and learning expectations. The aim of this paper is to explore the potential for interactive peer-based learning to engage ESL and EFL language learners provide authentic communication experiences and accelerate learning through two case studies in different contexts. A study was undertaken to investigate student ‘voice’ (Rudduck, 1999, 2005; Rudduck & Flutter, 2004) during an intervention of communicative language teaching using peer-based learning strategies. This article describes unique similarities and subtle differences between ESL and EFL undergraduate learning in two different cultural contexts, using a 'stages of learning matrix' teaching tool to encourage civic skills and self-efficacy. It also suggests ways for teachers to improve on inconsistencies in group-based learning in order to promote more inclusive and congruent learning experiences for English language learners.

Correlating eye gaze direction, depth and vehicle information on an interactive map for driver training

The over represented number of novice drivers involved in crashes is alarming. Driver training is one of the interventions aimed at mitigating the number of crashes that involve young drivers. Experienced drivers have better hazard perception ability compared to inexperienced drivers. Eye gaze patterns have been found to be an indicator of the driver's competency level. The aim of this paper is to develop an in-vehicle system which correlates information about the driver's gaze and vehicle dynamics, which is then used to assist driver trainers in assessing driving competency. This system allows visualization of the complete driving manoeuvre data on interactive maps. It uses an eye tracker and perspective projection algorithms to compute the depth of gaze and plots it on Google maps. This interactive map also features the trajectory of the vehicle and turn indicator usage. This system allows efficient and user friendly analysis of the driving task. It can be used by driver trainers and trainees to understand objectively the risks encountered during driving manoeuvres. This paper presents a prototype that plots the driver's eye gaze depth and direction on an interactive map along with the vehicle dynamics information. This prototype will be used in future to study the difference in gaze patterns in novice and experienced drivers prior to a certain manoeuvre.

Histology challenge : an interactive program for 1st year students

Our students come from diverse backgrounds. They need flexibility in their learning, and opportunities to review aspects of curriculum they are less confident with. An online teaching and learning programme called the Histology Challenge has been developed to supplement learning experiences offered in several first year anatomy and anatomy & physiology units at QUT. The programme is designed to be integrated with the existing Blackboard sites. The Histology Challenge emphasises the foundation concept that a complex system, such as the human body, can be better understood by examining its simpler components. The tutorial allows students to examine the cells and tissues which ultimately determine structural and functional properties of body organs. The program is interactive, asking students to make decisions and choices, demonstrating an integrated understanding of systemic and cellular aspects. It provides users with the ability to progress at their own pace and to test their understanding and knowledge. For the developer the learning activity can be easily controlled and modified via the use of text files. There are several key elements of this programme, designed to promote specific aspects of student learning. Minimum text is used, instead there is a strong emphasis on instructive artwork and original, high quality histology images presented within a framework that reinforces learning and promotes problem solving skills.

Emotional experience with portable interactive devices

This paper reports on a six month longitudinal study exploring people’s personal and social emotional experience with Portable Interactive Devices (PIDs). The study is concerned with the experience design approach and based on the theoretical framework of Activity Theory. The focus is on emotional experiences and how artefacts mediate and potentially enhance this experience. The outcomes of the study identified interesting aspects of PID interaction. Findings revealed people interact with PIDs emotionally both at a personal and a social level, supporting previous studies. Further, the social level impacts significantly on the emotional experience attained. If negative social experiences exceeded negative personal experiences the emotional experience was constant over six months. If negative personal experiences surpassed negative social experiences the emotional experience was varied over six months. The findings are discussed in regards to their significance to the field of design, their implication for future PID design and future research directions.

A novella of ideas : how interactive new media art can effectively communicate an indigenous philosophical concept

How interactive new media art can effectively communicate an indigenous philosophical concept. The sophistication and complexity of the philosophical concept concerning relationships between land and people and between people, intrinsic to the laws and customs of Australian Indigenous society, has begun to be communicated and accessed beyond the realm of anthropological and ethnological domains of Western scholarship. The exciting scope and rapid development of new media arts presents an innovative means of creating an interactive relationship with the general Australian public, addressing the urgent need for an understanding of Indigenous Australian concepts of relationship to land, and to each other, absent from Western narratives. The study is framed by an Indigenous concept of place, and relationships between land and people and between people; and explores how this concept can be clearly communicated through interactive new media arts. It involves: a creative project, the development of an interactive new media art project, a website work-in-progress titled site\sight\cite; and an exegesis, a Novella of Ideas, on the origins, influences, objectives, and potential of creative practices and processes engaged in the creative project. Research undertaken for the creative project and exegesis extended my creative practice into the use of interdisciplinary arts, expressly for the expression of philosophical concepts, consolidating 23 years experience in Indigenous community arts development. The creative project and exegesis contributes to an existing body of Indigenous work in a range of areas - including education, the arts and humanities - which bridges old and new society in Australia. In this study, old and new society is defined by the time of the initial production of art and foundations of knowledge, in the country of its origins, in Indigenous Australia dating back at least 40,000 years.

Impromptu : an interactive programming environment for composition and performance

Interactive development environments are making a resurgence. The traditional batch style of programming, edit -> compile -> run, is slowly being reevaluated by the development community at large. Languages such as Perl, Python and Ruby are at the heart of a new programming culture commonly described as extreme, agile or dynamic. Musicians are also beginning to embrace these environments and to investigate the opportunity to use dynamic programming tools in live performance. This paper provides an introduction to Impromptu, a new interactive development environment for musicians and sound artists.

Estimating interactive coefficients for analysing interactive failures

Engineering assets are often complex systems. In a complex system, components often have failure interactions which lead to interactive failures. A system with interactive failures may lead to an increased failure probability. Hence, one may have to take the interactive failures into account when designing and maintaining complex engineering systems. To address this issue, Sun et al have developed an analytical model for the interactive failures. In this model, the degree of interaction between two components is represented by interactive coefficients. To use this model for failure analysis, the related interactive coefficients must be estimated. However, methods for estimating the interactive coefficients have not been reported. To fill this gap, this paper presents five methods to estimate the interactive coefficients including probabilistic method; failure data based analysis method; laboratory experimental method; failure interaction mechanism based method; and expert estimation method. Examples are given to demonstrate the applications of the proposed methods. Comparisons among these methods are also presented.

The interactive potential of Web 2.0

Following the position of Beer and Burrows (2007) this paper poses a re-conceptualization of Web 2.0 interaction in order to understand the properties of action possibilities in and of Web 2.0. The paper discusses the positioning of Web 2.0 social interaction in light of current descriptions, which point toward the capacities of technology in the production of social affordances within that domain (Bruns 2007; Jenkins 2006; O’Reilly 2005). While this diminishes the agency and reflexivity for users of Web 2.0 it also inadvertently positions tools as the central driver for the interactive potential available (Everitt and Mills 2009; van Dicjk 2009). In doing so it neglects the possibility that participants may be more involved in the production of Web 2.0 than the technology that underwrites it. It is this aspect of Web 2.0 that is questioned in the study with particular interest on how an analytical option may be made available to broaden the scope of investigations into Web 2.0 to include a study of the capacity for an interactive potential in light of how action possibilities are presented to users through communication with others (Bonderup Dohn 2009).

Empirical investigation of interactive highway safety design model accident prediction algorithm : Rural intersections

One major gap in transportation system safety management is the ability to assess the safety ramifications of design changes for both new road projects and modifications to existing roads. To fulfill this need, FHWA and its many partners are developing a safety forecasting tool, the Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM). The tool will be used by roadway design engineers, safety analysts, and planners throughout the United States. As such, the statistical models embedded in IHSDM will need to be able to forecast safety impacts under a wide range of roadway configurations and environmental conditions for a wide range of driver populations and will need to be able to capture elements of driving risk across states. One of the IHSDM algorithms developed by FHWA and its contractors is for forecasting accidents on rural road segments and rural intersections. The methodological approach is to use predictive models for specific base conditions, with traffic volume information as the sole explanatory variable for crashes, and then to apply regional or state calibration factors and accident modification factors (AMFs) to estimate the impact on accidents of geometric characteristics that differ from the base model conditions. In the majority of past approaches, AMFs are derived from parameter estimates associated with the explanatory variables. A recent study for FHWA used a multistate database to examine in detail the use of the algorithm with the base model-AMF approach and explored alternative base model forms as well as the use of full models that included nontraffic-related variables and other approaches to estimate AMFs. That research effort is reported. The results support the IHSDM methodology.